Defensive Skills & Drills for Youth Lacrosse

Skill work and progressions you can use to build defensive proficiency

Watch live drills in a practice setting for easy implementation into your practices

Sample Videos

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Description

with Jason Breyo,Lambert (GA) High School Assistant Lacrosse Coach,

Build a foundation for successful defensive play!

Jason Breyo shares his blueprint for teaching defensive skills and drills to U13 - U15 lacrosse players. Using 12 and 13-year-old athletes as demonstrators, Breyo divides the DVD into four areas: Stick work, agility (footwork), position play and transition defense.

Stick WorkGet eight drills for passing and catching, fielding ground balls, dodging, over-the shoulder-catching and clearing the ball. These drills will help your athletes improve their accuracy on long passes, become proficient throwing a pass with either hand, learn to use either hand on a split dodge and a roll dodge, and techniques that will benefit your clearing game. Drills are demonstrated using long sticks.

Agility (Footwork)Pick up agility drills for defensive players focusing on proper hand placement, stick position and footwork. These drills progress from a 5-yard side-to-side movement drill, to a 3-cone triangle drill working on the drop step, to a ladder agility drill that focuses on changing direction.

Position PlayGet a progression of 1-on-1 drills to teach your athletes key defensive concepts. Starting without sticks, Breyo's drills focus on top-side defense, forcing the attacker inside and keeping the hands in front with a poke check. The progression morphs into a 2-on-2 series that teaches the Ball-Me-Man concept.

Transition DefenseLearn team defense concepts with a look at transition defense from a 2-on-1 situation to a 3-on-2 fast break to train your players to defend odd number situations.

This is a very useful teaching DVD for inexperienced coach or parent looking to help improve the youth lacrosse player and develop the necessary skills to play solid defense.

This is a very basic DVD aimed at coaching beginning-level long sticks. The first part shows U13 level players doing traditional line and passing/catching drills. There are some good ideas here for new coaches (who maybe did not even did not play) who are dealing with rookie players. Overall, this seems better suited for brand new coaches who work with U13 and not U15 (who should know most of these skills and concepts).
For the U15 level and beyond, I recommend Mike Pressler's The Defenseman and John Danowski's Becoming a Champion: The Defenseman.

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